Britain: “We were afraid of a CBDC gap”
You may have woken up on Tuesday to the surprising news that “Britcoin”, the UK’s stab at a digital pound, will be with us by the latter half of this decade. Here’s a small selection of the Britcoin news of the day, all mysteriously published at 10.30pm last night (i.e. about 33 mins before I […]
No NHS Reform Talk Please, We’re British (POLITICO)
POLITICO, (Feb 6, 2023) – by Helen Collis
Europe is Facing a Grain Glut (POLITICO)
Seven countries call for urgent steps to tackle glut of food imports from Ukraine, but stop short of calling for reimposition of tariffs. POLITICO, (Jan 30, 2023) By Bartosz Brzezinski Eastern European member countries, including Poland, Hungary and Romania, have called for limits on surging imports of Ukrainian grain into the EU and compensating farmers […]
ESG’s biggest secret is that its investment case is based on crypto economics
Over the last 10 years ESG — Environment, Social and Governance — has taken the financial world by storm. Sometimes dubbed “woke capitalism”, it favours morals over short-term financial self-interest. It has resulted in the rush of capital into stocks like Tesla’s, helping turn Elon Musk into into the world’s richest man. But what ESG […]
High Interest Rates Are Encouraging Fintechs Like Wise To Become Shadow Banks
And Why There Are Risks with Fintechs Cashing In on Higher Rates The fintech sector has been having a tough time of late. But, as I noted in my last Blind Spot wrap, even those fintechs that looked like they were at death’s door in mid-2022, i.e. Monzo and Klarna, came out at the end […]
One World, Two Systems
Trust Zoltan Pozsar of Credit Suisse to drop not one but two mega thought pieces on the future of the financial system in the Betwixmas period. The latest, dubbed War and Currency Statecraft, is particularly thought-provoking and resonates with my own thinking a lot. To explain the parallels I penned a Twitter thread earlier today, […]
Leaked Lunch Show Notes: Nouriel Roubini
In this edition of Leaked Lunch Izabella Kaminska sits down with economist and author Nouriel Roubini for a modest “brunch” at the Ned in the heart of the City of London. The duo discuss Roubini’s new book “Mega Threats“, including its Malthusian themes, the global inflation outlook and how the crypto collapse is playing out. […]
Leaked Lunch Show Notes: Room Service with Pippa Malmgren
In this edition of Leaked Lunch I sit down for some room service with economist and author Pippa Malmgren at the Park Hyatt in Zurich, Switzerland. We discuss Pippa’s time serving as a special economic advisor to George W. Bush at the White House, how she feels about crypto and whether WW3 has already started. […]
Another Blockchain Project Bites The Dust
Blink and you may miss the announcement. The world’s second-largest container shipping group AP Møller-Maersk said on Tuesday (with very little fanfare) that: A.P. Moller – Maersk and IBM to discontinue TradeLens, a blockchain-enabled global trade platform Starting today, the TradeLens team is taking action to withdraw the offerings and discontinue the platform, and the […]
Mapping the Crypto Shadow Banking System
It took nearly five years for Zoltan Pozsar (then at the New York Fed) to map out the full complexity of the shadow banking system in a bid to help regulators and policymakers to better understand how risks piled up in the system. The end result was this extraordinary chart: Now, thanks to the endless […]